Ragen Chastain Disorganized business owners lose money. As business owners it seems like we concentrate as much time, effort, and money as humanly possible on sales and marketing.  And that makes sense…that’s where the money comes from.  Let me be clear that I am not knocking sales and marketing – in fact, I’m currently working with Pete Monfre of Clarity Marketing (www.claritymarketingsupport.com) on my own strategy.  (By the way, Pete is a genius and is helping me with many things including creating a new logo, improving my website and designing book covers that are a lot more fabulous, so keep your eye out!) Unfortunately, what many business owners end up learning the hard way is that administrative systems form the foundation of their business.   Just like a house, it’s pretty impossible to create a business without a foundation. It doesn’t matter how many people you meet networking if you can’t keep track of them.  It doesn’t matter how many referrals you get if you don’t follow up with them.  It doesn’t matter how many sales you make if you can’t fulfill the orders.  It doesn’t matter how many orders you fulfill if you don’t invoice.  It doesn’t matter how many invoices you send …ok, you get the picture. Organizational systems do NOT stand over you with a big hammer and beat you up (”It’s not GOOD enough!”  “You have to FILE!” etc.).  Organizational systems sit underneath you and support you in everything that you do.  They are how you know that you won’t lose that business card, that you will remember to follow up with that prospect, that you have invoiced all of your clients,  that you can fax that document to someone as soon as you get back to the office (without having to launch a search party in your garage to find it).  So how do you build the foundation under the house? Create and institute your systems one at a time, over time.  Rome was not built in a day and your organization systems won’t be either.  For many people summer is the slow time in their business.  Consider using this slowdown as a time to create the systems and processes that will support you when things pick up in the fall.  Brainstorm a list of all of the things that you do and start creating simple systems to make sure that you don’t miss steps or lose out on opportunities. I have books  and workshops (www.renegadeorganizer.com) coming up to help you do this in what I think is the fastest, easiest, most common sense way possible; but there are lots of options out there so find what works best for you and create a strong foundation so that your business can grow as big and as fast as you can imagine! --- Ragen Chastain has spent over 14 years working in administration and organization consulting with all types and sizes of businesses. She started The Renegade Organizer in 2004 to get the information that I had discovered about organization out to the people who could really use it. She's published two books "The Renegade Organizer's Easy Guide to Paper Management" and "Simple Systems for a Complicated World". She also does workshops, master classes, corporate training and one-on-one consulting. Renegade Organizing is a simple, realistic system that allows people to create organization in every aspect of their lives based on their own personality and work-style. Typically she works with people who are: Tired of leaving money on the table because of lost business cards, lost opportunities, and wasted time. Ready to shatter the myths that are keeping them stuck in a constant state of clutter, disorganization, and frustration. Exhausted from trying everything there is and sure that they just aren't "organized people" and never will be.